


The Raven Prince

by ProfoundWolfUnknown



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M, M/M, Minor Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Minor Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish, Multi, Ronan Lynch is Bad at Feelings, Ronan Swears, Ronan is so very Ronan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-31 07:46:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 14,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6461830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfoundWolfUnknown/pseuds/ProfoundWolfUnknown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something is very wrong with Ronan.<br/>The most non-Aglionby Aglionby boy is sitting in the passenger seat.<br/>Who the hell is this boy who wandered into Monmouth?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Gansey

Gansey at three in the afternoon is a very different Gansey than the one at three in the morning. This Gansey is much more focused, poised, ready to speak in his Virginian money accent. This Gansey might call you ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am’ if he feels it necessary. This Gansey has glasses on the edge of his nose, a book in his hand, and is reading out loud as he paces through Monmouth Manufacturing. 

Noah listened to Gansey intently on Gansey’s bed, a new favorite spot of his. Gansey started this pursuit with Noah taking scribbled notes on what he was saying, but soon Noah stopped writing, and Gansey continued reading despite this, quite possibly because there was nothing else to occupy his mind with. 

His Welsh King had yet to be found, and with recent events, he could not take Blue or Adam out to search for more clues, and Noah had been fading in and out a lot recently. He would take Ronan, but going out alone with Ronan always ended in someone’s feelings being hurt. Usually the feelings did not belong to Gansey or Ronan, but that did not make Gansey feel any better about the offense.

“Someone’s coming.” Noah said, suddenly looking up. Gansey dropped his book onto the bed and walked over to the door, knowing to trust Noah on this. He expected Adam, but the knock on the door was unfamiliar, and Blue would’ve let herself in.

It was a Raven Boy, Aglionby sweater and nice hair included. The boy had a soft face, full lips, and big, wide eyes. Gansey recognized him, but strangely could not find a name. Finding a Raven Boy that Gansey did not know was a feat, and to have a Raven Boy he did not know on his doorstep made him feel odd. 

“Hey,” The Raven Boy said, skittish, throwing up a hand in greeting. “Uh… You’re Richard Gansey, yeah?”

This boy, Gansey concluded, was not from Virginia. His accent was that of someone further west, California maybe. “Yes.” He replied with a confused smile on his lips. This boy didn’t strike him as Raven Boy very much either. First of all, everyone in Aglionby called him ‘Gansey’, ‘Gansey boy’, ‘Dick’, or the occasional ‘Richard the Third’. Secondly, no one at Aglionby would come to Monmouth willingly.

“I’m uh, looking for uh, Ronan.” He said, eyes darting around inside the building for a moment. As an after thought he added, “Lynch. Ronan Lynch.”

“He’s here.” Gansey said, still confused. This raised a lot more questions in his mind. A Raven Boy would not be keen on talking to Ronan Lynch. A Raven Boy would know that you did not have to add Lynch to the name Ronan. A Raven Boy would know that of course Ronan would be wherever Gansey was.

“Oh, good.” The Raven Boy replied, very relieved, then suddenly, more stressed. “Uh, I’m here to tutor him. He should know. Could you uh, get him for me?”

Gansey blinked. Ronan? Tutoring? Those two words did not make sense together, but Gansey nodded anyway, turned his head, called Ronan’s name. He turned back to the Raven Boy.

“What’s your name?” Gansey asked.

“Oh, sorry,” He said, scratching the back of his neck. “Parker. Parker Jones. I’m sort of new at Aglionby.” He stuck out his hand and Gansey shook it. This answered almost every question.

“Nice to meet you.” Gansey said. “You’re tutoring Ronan?”

“I- uh, yeah. Yes.” Parker answered. “In math.”

“Good luck.” Gansey said, turning to call for Ronan again. He turned back. “Would you like to come in?”

“Sure.” Raven Boy replied. He stepped inside, eyes flickering. Gansey allowed him a minute to look around. Monmouth was a sight to see. His eyes, a hazel color that reminded Gansey of the shifting trees in Cabeswater, landed on the tiny Henrietta that Gansey had made out of cardboard and glue. He pointed and said, “Nice.” Then he looked up and said. “Oh, are you Ronan?”

Noah laughed loudly. This struck Gansey as odd again. Noah did not often to appear to anyone who wasn’t Blue, Adam, Ronan, or himself, and he certainly didn’t look so whole and alive when he did. He had been very distant lately, prone to fading in an instant. In truth, a truth Gansey didn’t want to face, Noah had been much more ghost than boy recently. Right now however, he looked as though he hadn’t been dead at all. His laugh sounded real, and bright, and Raven Boy chuckled too.

“No.” Noah said finally, standing. “Me? Ronan Lynch? Ha!” He bustled out of the room, whistling.

Raven Boy glanced back at Gansey, looking more anxious than he had before. Gansey sighed and wandered over to Ronan’s room and knocked. Ronan didn’t reply, and Gansey forced the door open, barreling in. 

Ronan laid across his bed, shirtless, headphones on with the music blaring loud and obnoxious, eyes closed. Gansey went over to him, tripping over various objects, some of them dream things, some of them not dream things. He slapped his arm, and Ronan merely opened one eye. He lifted a headphone, Irish music pouring out of it. 

“What?” He said.

“You have a visitor.” Gansey replied.

“And?”

“Generally, one tends to meet their visitors.”

“Fuck off.” Ronan said, but he sat up, and turned off his music. “Who is it?”

“Your tutor.” Gansey answered, smiling suddenly.

“My what?” Ronan asked.

“Tutor.” Gansey repeated. “For math.”

Ronan let out a string of swears. Gansey did not cringe, but imagined that if Raven Boy could hear, he would. Gansey considered praying for the young boy’s safety, but instead just turned and walked back into the main room, Ronan stomping behind him.

“Parker Jones,” Gansey started. He gestured to Ronan, smirk, shaved head, tattoo slithering up onto his shoulders from his back, and all. “This is Ronan Lynch. Lynch, this is Jones.”

“Hello.” Parker said, but his eyes were saying ‘oh dear god, help me’.

“Fuck off.” Ronan said. 

“Ronan.” Gansey snapped.

“Here?” Parker asked, voice so suddenly calm that Gansey startled. “That would be unseemly, wouldn’t it?”

“It’s an expression.” Ronan commented, smirk becoming a terrible smile. Parker’s eyebrow flicked up at the same time Gansey’s did.

“I’m your tutor.” Parker said. “For math.”

“I’ve been told.” Ronan scowled. “I’m not going.”

Raven Boy also scowled. “If I don’t tutor you then you’ll get bad grades, and I’ll be the one getting in trouble. That’s not fair.”

Ronan shrugged, unconcerned. Fairness never mattered to him much, even before his father’s death.

“I’m tutoring you.” Raven Boy said to- no told- Ronan. Ronan blinked. Gansey stared. People did not tell Ronan what to do unless they were Gansey, and even then, Ronan did not often listen. This Raven Boy was not Gansey.

And yet, Ronan was saying, “Fine, but we’re getting shit food on the way.”

He retreated to his room, most likely to gather his things, and Gansey was finding this entire situation extremely damning for everyone involved. “Huh,” He said. 

Raven Boy also seemed confused, but with something else entirely. He was looking at Gansey’s wall, with its various papers and maps tacked to it. Strings connected various things to other things. Gansey’s handwriting was scribbled all over it, in red, blue, black, green, a rainbow of mad scrawling.

“Ley lines.” Raven Boy commented, staring at the map with it’s three sloping, intersecting lines. Gansey’s heart jumped at the words. Who the hell was this boy who had wandered into Monmouth? How did he know about ley lines? Raven Boy reached a hand up to possibly touch the map, but didn’t get very far.

Ronan returned with Chainsaw on his shoulder, the beast now fully grown, a little white tuft of downy on her chest. Parker turned and made a weird startled squeaking sound that Chainsaw happily mimicked.

“What the fucking hell is that?” Parker asked.

“That is my raven.” Ronan replied, obviously pleased with himself and his ability to scare boys who are younger than him. He stroked the bird fondly, and she nipped at one of his fingers in appreciation. “Her name is Chainsaw.”

Parker breathed in and out in a strange, practiced way, and said, “Is Chainsaw, uh, some sort of mascot for the school?”

In a way that sounded very much like Noah from before, Ronan laughed. “No dip shit, why would I have a mascot in my room?”

“I don’t know. Why would anyone have a scavenger bird in their room?”

“Fuck off.” Ronan repeated himself.

“Only if you pay me. I take checks, but really I’d prefer cash.” Parker mumbled. “Are we taking your, uh, friend with us?”

“Yes.”

“We shouldn’t.”

Ronan snarled. “You going to stop me?” 

“Considering the tattoo and the scavenger bird on your shoulder, probably not.” Parker shrugged. “Are you driving? I took a bus here.”

“Rich bitch kid takes the bus?” Ronan asked as though it were a statement. A dark eyebrow, sharp enough to cut skin, shot up along with one corner of Ronan’s mouth.

Gansey’s skin prickled strangely. Ronan normally wouldn’t make fun of someone’s money, or lack thereof, not since they met Adam. In a way, Gansey thought, the way Ronan said it sounded an awful lot like Adam.

“Not rich, not a bitch, not a kid.” Parker countered pensively. “Are you driving?”

“Looks that way.” Ronan replied, walking out with Raven Boy on his heels.

Gansey blinked. From somewhere behind his ear he could hear Noah whisper, “What just happened?”

Gansey did not know, but simply picked up his book, and continued reading from where he had left off.


	2. Chapter 2

Ronan

Something was very wrong with Ronan.

He barreled down Henrietta’s main highway in Kavinskey’s white, rich kid car. The most non-Aglionby Aglionby boy sat in the passenger seat, hand gripping white-knuckled to the overhead handle. Every once and a while Ronan would glance at the boy, with his soft face and California tan. He would tear his eyes away a moment after he saw the boy’s eyes catch his in the rearview mirror. He pretend that he could not see the boy glance back at him, because the boy was pretending he couldn’t see Ronan do it either. This dangerous game had him gripping the steering wheel as he tried to reel himself back in to the moment. Easy on the gas- shift- break for the light- don’t rev the engine- shift- easy on the gas.

Something was very very wrong with Ronan.

“So,” The boy- Parker- said after a time. “Where are we going?”

Ronan shrugged. His heart wasn’t in the movement.

“Are you kidnapping me?” Parker asked, very serious.

Ronan smirked, eyes raking over the boy in a way that probably screamed ‘Caution: Don’t Take This One Home To Your Mother’. Parker shuddered, and Ronan chuckled, and Chainsaw, bouncing around in the back seat, squawked. 

“You are not going to be fun to work with are you?” Parker sighed, heavy. His hand fell from the handle and instead went to his hair, mussing it. Ronan’s eyes watched the movement for a second too long, and he clenched the steering wheel and his teeth harder. He had to force his eyes back onto the road. Parker shrunk into the seat a bit more. “Is your friend looking for ley lines?”

“How do you know what those are?” Ronan asked.

“I know stuff.” Parker replied, not really answering, but it satisfied Ronan enough until the boy added, “Does he know about the three sleepers legend- thing?”

“The fuck?”

“It’s just a little Welsh story.” Parker explained, sounding defensive. “There’s this king guy, Owen Glen-something. He was supposedly taken across the sea on one of the ley lines. It’s supposed to keep the soul intact or something like that. Anyway, there’s this other little legend that says that Owen wasn’t the only one. There were three, three sleepers. It was just a story or whatever.”

“Glendower.” Ronan breathed.

“Oh, yeah, that was his name. So your friend knows about that stuff? Is it a school project? It didn’t look like a school project.” 

“No.” Ronan replied. “It’s not a school project.”

They didn’t talk until they reached McDonald’s. Ronan asked if Parker wanted any fries. Parker shook his head, leaning his forehead against the window. Light hit his eyes, making the gold in them glint, and Ronan ordered fries anyway. He passed them to Parker and the boy ate them, as if he already had Ronan wrapped around his finger. Ronan threw a kid’s toy onto his lap and growled something insulting to make up for it.

They stopped at a small library on the other side of town. They sat for a second while Ronan finished his food, did as Gansey did, and pondered. It seemed that Ronan didn’t just run into normal people anymore. Noah, Blue, Mr. Gray, Colin Greenmantle, and now this small Raven Boy who just happens to know about the three sleepers. Coincidence? He imagined Adam and Gansey looking at him with the same expression.

Bullshit.

He grabbed his things and let Chainsaw loose so she could fly around the building. Parker followed him inside. The library wasn’t very impressive as far as libraries go. It reeked of the old book smell and children. Frankly, it thrilled Ronan, but he had to keep up a disgusted face. 

They sat in a corner near self-help books and finally started talking. This time the conversation was about math, which was arguably much less intriguing than the Welsh, but at least, safe. They fell into a silence quickly, with Ronan’s mad sketching of graphs, and Parker’s softly drumming fingers breaking it softly, like rain pattering against windows.

Ronan decided this annoyed him.

“So why, the fuck, do you know so much about the Welsh?” He asked.

Parker shifted. “I just recently moved here, and Virginia has a lot of Welsh background. I internet surf compulsively.”

“Did you also just randomly Internet surf until you found a bus route to our abandoned building?” Ronan asked, voice edging on accusation. His smile showed canines, sharp, fox-like, and altogether just as deadly as he felt.

Parker didn’t seem to see Ronan’s bright warning colors or his tail rattling like the snake he was. “No, the school counselor told me how to get there. She seemed surprised about the bus thing too, didn’t put it quite as eloquently as you though. She told me about your friend too, said he was like the top of his class or whatever, and told me you were a bad influence. I see why, no offense.” Ronan snorted. “Why do you know so much about the Welsh?”

Ronan knew from Gansey, and Gansey knew because he was Gansey, but instead Ronan replied, “Fuck if I know.”

Parker clicked his tongue, looking over Ronan’s work. He got a weird, concentrating look on his face, his brows furrowing. Ronan’s eyes drew to the pout in the boy’s lip, the way he swallowed, the little thud-thud in the vein in the boy’s neck. He looked nervous. Ronan often made people look that way.

“That’s not how you do number seven.” Parker said, pointing at the paper. He slid his chair over to point out a formula in Ronan’s textbook. Ronan slid his chair over to peer at Parker’s collarbone from beneath his Aglionby shirt. All was well for a time. He redid the problem, Parker scooted firmly away, and Ronan began smirking devilishly.

“You’re not actually bad at math are you?” Parker guessed. Ronan had rushed through the next twenty-three problems, all correct and done perfectly. “Why are you failing your class if you’re not bad at math?”

“Because I don’t want to do my work.” Ronan replied, truthful in a way that sounded like lying, a specialty of his.

“Why not?”

“Takes up to much of my fucking free time, why do you care?”

The boy shrugged, packing up his things meticulously. He shouldered his backpack as he stood. “Are you driving?”

“Take the bus.” Ronan hissed, all venom for no reason. Parker was unfazed, eyes on the books around them instead.

“See you next Tuesday.” He said.

“Fuck off.” Ronan replied.

“I would, but it would probably be too noisy for the library.” Parker countered with measured patience.

Ronan smirked like a bastard, a bastard he very much was, and ducked out of the library, calling for Chainsaw as he went to the car. “Kerah!” She replied, landing on his shoulder, as if she were sorry for him.


	3. Chapter 3

Adam

Adam, Gansey, and Blue are sitting at Nino’s. Blue’s shift ended exactly five minutes ago, and Adam’s next job started in just thirty minutes. This left ample time to discuss Glendower and Sleepers and Greenmantle, but instead of discussing any of it, they are waiting for Ronan.

Adam is stirring his milkshake ($3.17) with a spoon, trying to listen to Blue discuss her father and Mr. Gray and how love triangles are a dumb movie trope, but instead he can feel the ley line pulsing in his veins. Cabeswater had been very loud lately, ever since they collected Gwenllian and the raven cave. Loud was not the right word for Cabeswater, more like scary or obnoxious in a way that had Adam’s attention.

Ronan arrived, but not alone. A Raven Boy appeared behind him, looking self-conscience, a look that Adam remembered well, having looked like it himself. Ronan spied them and gave them a very Ronan-esq smirk. He slithered over and sat down beside Adam, while Raven Boy awkwardly stood at the front of the table.

“Jane, Adam,” Gansey said after a beat. “This is Parker Jones, Ronan’s tutor.”

“Ronan has a tutor.” Blue said, more astonished than she had been the first time they went to Cabeswater. She leaned back, eyes wide. “I’ve seen everything.”

“Shut it, maggot.” Ronan growled, scooting over to make room for Parker. Adam slid to the middle of the rounded seat, taking his milkshake with him.

Cabeswater screamed at Adam furiously, sending a flurry of feathers across his vision for a brief moment. Adam disconnected, straw still in his mouth, eyes glued to the raven on Parker’s Aglionby sweater. His hand went to his pocket, but he knew where his Tarot cards were, and it wasn’t here. Would Cabeswater talk to him in front of the others anyway?

“Why did you bring your tutor here?” Blue asked, the ‘we can’t talk about Glendower if he’s here’ part omitted.

“The library was closed.” Ronan replied.

“Then why didn’t you cancel?”

“We were talking about legends.” Ronan growled, eyes narrowed. “A legend. Three sleepers legend.”

“What?” Gansey said.

“It was just a legend on the internet, why are you still stuck on that?” Parker asked, turning to Ronan sourly.

“More than that though. This asshole also knows about ley lines, and Glendower, and the Welsh.” Ronan continued, looking at Gansey in a way that asked ‘Coincidence?’

Gansey’s face fell into a frown, his thumb went to his bottom lip, and he considered this. Adam, on the other hand, felt Cabeswater well up inside of him. He was staring at the swimming hazel eyes of this Raven Boy, asking Cabeswater again and again why this was important, but the only answer he got was whispering in his deaf ear. The words made no sense, at least, to him.

Nobis necesse est Puer Corvus… Porto nos est Corvus Princeps… Nunc… Nunc… Nunc!

His Latin lessons only helped so much. All he knew was that Cabeswater wanted him to give them something, raven something, and it wanted it now.

“I heard some other guys at school say you were looking for a King, and I’m sure it’s weird that I know a little about it, but really, it’s just a coinci- why are you looking at me like that?”

Adam startled, shaking his head, but that didn’t matter. Gansey, Ronan, and Blue had seen him do it, and at once, everyone in the room besides the Aglionby boy knew. Coincidences don’t happen anymore.

“What do you know about Owen Glendower?” Gansey asked.

Parker started, eyes glinting. “Uh… Just that he was a Welsh King who was supposedly taken here across the ley line. Other than that, I really don’t know much, but you’re looking for him right? I heard the other kids ask if you’ve found your king yet.”

“I am, and I haven’t.” Gansey said, leaning back. He was never one to deny the truth.

“That’s really cool, and also has nothing to do with me,” Raven Boy said, standing. “So if Ronan and I can’t study then I’ll just go-“

“Sit down.” Ronan said, demanding as usual. Raven Boy sat after a moment’s hesitation.

“Adam, what’s wrong?” Blue asked, fingers brushing against Adam’s elbow. 

He realized that he had not been inside of himself for a time. He was an onlooker on this conversation, an outsider looking in, but now he was back, and his mind was racing like the ley line. He couldn’t answer, because he didn’t know. Blue looked at him, past him, then at the Raven Boy.

“Are you going to end up trying to kill one of us?” She asked him.

“Uh… No?” Parker replied, clearly unsure.

“What do we do?” Gansey asked Adam. Adam still wasn’t used to Gansey asking for his help, and he shook his head, unsure.

“Seriously, what’s going on?” Parker asked.

Adam wanted to ask Persephone what to do, but that was no longer an option. Cabeswater didn’t own him. Just because it tantrums doesn’t make it right. He’s the boss. I’m the boss. The next best option, aside from Persephone, would make him miss his second job, but with the court date over and Cabeswater screaming in his deaf ear…

“We should take him to your mom.” Adam said to Blue. “He should get his cards read.”

“You do realize I’m right here, right?” Parker snapped. “Tell me what’s going on, please.”

Ronan smirked at him. “You’re walking with the demons now.”


	4. Chapter 4

Blue

Blue’s house is different now that Persephone is gone and mom is back. Things are quieter now, more high strung. Readings seem to run a little longer, feel more chaotic, because what once was three is now two. Blue in the room makes it better though, so that’s where she is when the new kid, the Raven Boy, Parker, comes over to her house.

Most of the women in her family are out for work or school or part time jobs, so it is mainly her, Calla, Orla, Maura, and Mr. Gray who are at the house. Gwenllian is also here somewhere, most likely on the opposite side of the house of Artemus, who is here somewhere too. Blue has had plenty occasion to speak with her father, but each time she would feel suddenly nervous and slink off somewhere else.

The reading room was well dusted, as if the other two women knew they would be coming. It is very likely that they did. She led her Raven Boys, and the new Raven Boy, into the room. All but one looked calm and pensive. Blue pushed the not calm one into a chair at one end of the table and started lighting candles while calling for her mom and Calla.

They came down the stairs, looking triumphant.

“I was wondering when you’d show up.” Calla said, moving over to sit at the table. Raven Boy glanced around the room, at the candles and at Maura at Calla, and at Orla, who had made herself very noticeable with her pink stockings and short shorts. Blue shooed her away, knowing the effect of Orla’s legs on boys’ minds.

“We want you to do a reading.” Adam said, very Adam like.

“We’re going to get to that.” Calla snapped. She snapped a lot since Persephone died.

“Tarot cards.” Raven Boy observed as Maura pulled them out of a silk scarf. She put the deck in front of Parker. He spied them curiously as Calla shuffled them exactly three times. “I know a bit about those, which is probably going to make them even more suspicious.” He glanced wearily at Gansey, who was, Blue thought, looking very suspicious. “I used to own a set once.”

“Shuffle them.” Maura said, passing them over. “Set five down on the table when you’re done.”

Parker’s hands were shaking as he shuffled them. Blue found this strange, nothing was scary about shuffling cards. He shuffled, accidentally sending one skidding across the table. He picked it up delicately, then thought better of it and placed it in front of himself as card number one.

“Sorry, I’m a little out of my depth here.” He mumbled.

“You don’t believe in this stuff, do you?” Blue asked, moving to stand by her mother. Many people had come to her mother looking the way this teen boy did. Gansey caught her eye in a dangerously meaningful way. She did her best to ignore it.

“Is that going to mess with the reading?” Parker asked, setting down four more cards from the top of the deck. Blue saw a candle flicker as Parker set down the deck. Se forced herself to believe the wind had done it. Wind that blew in houses, yeah, that’s all it is.

“No.” Calla said. Blue had forgotten the Raven Boy asked a question, and thought Calla responded to her thoughts. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

Maura pointed to each card in turn. “Your past, working in your favor, your present, working in opposition to your mission, and your future.”

“Okay.” Raven Boy swallowed. Maura flipped over the first card.

Seven of Swords. Blue found this one reminding her of Gansey, with it’s wispy auburn hair and studious eyes. In his hands, the Seven of Swords carried four swords, three more waiting behind him. His eyes were fixed off somewhere else, toward the edge of the ink drawn card.

“What does it mean?” Raven Boy asked.

Maura didn’t reply at first. Instead she studied the boy for a few long moments, eyes squinty, then used her long fingers to push the cards toward him. “You tell me.” She said.

The boy startled, then audibly swallowed. Everyone in the room, excluding Calla and Maura held their breath and leaned in closer. Raven Boy breathed in slow, then out slower, and started. “Uh… New plans, I think. It means that my past was changed by a new idea, new plans. That makes sense, because we moved for Aglionby and my dad’s new job, so… Yeah.”

Maura nodded for him to continue, and he flipped over the next card. Blue found it strange, how he did that almost as professionally as her mother. 

Inverted emperor. His smile was cunning and dangerous all at once, a little like Ronan, but with not shaved hair, and a crown on his head, Emperor of the deck. Blue shifted uncomfortably, but she wasn’t sure why.

“Lack of self control. My lack of self control is helping me?” The Raven Boy asked, eyebrow quirking.

“Or someone else’s.” Calla commented, sharing a look with Maura. Blue could not read their expressions.

The next card was the Nine of Swords. The boy in the drawing looked very much like the boy sitting at the table, soft face, pink lips, and nice hair. Nine swords stuck out from the ground, blocking the way out. In the corner, the boy on the card cried, eyes closed. The card looked as though the ink on it was not yet dry, making it dark and spooky.

“The darkest hour.” Raven Boy muttered, looking more anxious by the second, voice sounding bleak. “Worry, fear. Accurate too, I guess.”

He flipped over the next card. Magician. Adam. Coincidence?

Never.

“Be careful where you put your trust.” Raven Boy said. “It’s working against me. So, maybe, being careful is working against me? I shouldn’t be careful? I should be more trusting. Is that right?”

Maura and Calla said nothing.

He went to turn the next card.

Blue, strangely, knew what it would be before he even touched it.

Page of Cups. Look how much potential she holds in that cup!

“Why does this card look like your daughter?” Raven Boy asked. He looked at the other cards, then at the other people around him. “Why do all these cards look like them? Why does the nine of swords look like me? Am I going crazy? I feel crazy. I mean, that’s not possible right?”

Gansey had his thumb on his bottom lip, looking spooked. Adam seemed pleased with himself maybe, like he had just figured out a puzzle. Ronan, just like a snake, seemed curled in on himself, defensive, like he might snap if you touched him the wrong way.

“Draw another card.” Maura said. Parker did.

Inverted Hanged Man. Sirens went off in Blue’s head. She drew a sharp breath and whispered, “Noah.” The boys, aside from the one sitting, looked at her, then the card, and then her again. Adam’s eyebrow quirked, as if he found a puzzle again.

“One more.”

He turned up another card from the deck. This time it was the Chariot, only it was inverted. To Blue, this card was possibly the only bad card in the deck. She had been told that there wasn’t a bad card, they were just cards, never good or bad. Inverted like that, it appeared the man on the Chariot was drowning, hands reaching for a way out. Beneath him, in inky black, it looked as if someone had hastily, messily, scrawled the word ‘control’. Right side up, it looked like ‘focus’ Blue knew, but it was hard to see that now that she had seen this.

“Okay,” Raven Boy said, standing. “Okay, I’m done. We’re done.”

“You should sit.” Maura said, patient.

“No.” Raven Boy said. “No, I’m good. I don’t need anymore cards.”

“Listen to her, uh…” Calla looked at Blue.

“Parker.” Blue said quietly. Calla nodded.

“Parker, you really ought to sit down.”

“No. No, actually. I don’t want to sit down.” Parker ran a hand through his hair, looked between all the boys in the room, all of them just as shaken, and stepped away from the table again. “I think I’m going home now. In fact I don’t just think it. I know it. I am going home now.”

“Sit down.” Ronan said, the same way he had said it at the dinner. Parker looked at him, very leveled. Blue knew that it was difficult to defy Ronan when he talked like that, like he was the biggest, scariest thing in the room and he knew it. Parker hesitated, hand going to the back of the chair like he would sit. He didn’t.

He pushed past Adam and Gansey and opened the door very purposefully. He disappeared into the evening air.

“Well,” Gansey said.

Ronan grinned, terribly pleasantly. “We’re fucked.”


	5. Chapter 5

Adam

Adam did not particularly long for Aglionby at any point in his life when he was not at Aglionby, but the normalcy of school made him feel better after a day like yesterday. For a moment he wasn’t Adam: The Magician and Secretary of Cabeswater, but instead he was Adam: Friend of Gansey and Keeper of Ronan. 

The three of them walked the halls as they always did. Together they were unstoppable, if only for a little while. The sea of other Aglionby boys parted for them. Here they were gods, here they were Adam, Gansey, and Ronan: The Triad. Adam had been told many times recently that things worked better in threes, that threes were magic numbers, and he couldn’t deny it when he was with Gansey and Ronan.

They had a free period now where they used to have Latin. It seemed Colin Greenmantle had disappeared. Mr. Gray had checked his home and found no sign of him or his wife. Adam wasn’t sure if this was good news or bad news. Something in Cabeswater had changed since the Raven Cave, and he could not tell if the change was a good change, bad change, or just a normal, everyday change. Then again, there was no normal, everyday anything when it came to Cabeswater.

“Adam,” Gansey said, pulling him back to the present. “Did you do your math homework yet?”

Adam nodded, and retrieved his notebook while Gansey chose a spot on the Aglionby quad. They sat down under a small, secluded tree while Gansey compared their answers. His thumb went to his bottom lip, rubbing as he thought.

“Did you know that freaky shit was going to happen?” Ronan asked.

It took a beat for Adam to realize Ronan was talking about the card reading. He shrugged. “I knew something was going to happen, and it is Cabeswater, so it was bound to be a little freaky.”

“The cards looked like us.” Gansey said. “Did they always look like us?”

“I don’t know.” Adam admitted. “The only cards I’d ever seen before were Blue’s and mine. Persephone’s deck is in a different art style.” 

“And I’ve only seen the Death card.” Gansey sighed, leaning back against the tree trunk.

Adam started for a moment. Gansey’s name was written on a list somewhere in Blue’s house, a list that marked him for death sometime before the year ran out. Adam’s heart did a complicated staccato. To tell or not to tell. Would telling Gansey insure his death? Would not telling Gansey insure his death? Was there a right answer at all?

“Nine of Swords.” Ronan remarked casually. “That was the asshole’s card, yeah?”

Adam replied. “Yeah.”

“You’re the expert,” Ronan said. “Explain it.”

“You want me to tell you what the card means?” Adam asked. Ronan waved his hand in a way that meant ‘yes, and hurry up’. Adam thought. Cabeswater didn’t have a guidebook when it came to cards, but Adam did recall a bit of Persephone’s wisdom. “It means there’s something hanging over your head. Something is troubling you. Worry, fear, regrets, you know, that sort of thing. You feel… bad, I guess.”

“The darkest hour.” Gansey recalled.

“What’s it mean if it’s upside down?” Ronan asked, lying back, spread out like a king, the tangled roots of the tree as his throne. Adam knew that if anyone was the king of Aglionby, it was Gansey.

“Trust your intuition. Your doubts are well founded.” Adam said.

Just then a group of Aglionby students rushed past them, a smear of blue vests, white collars, and khaki pants across Adam’s vision. A teacher followed after the group, walking quick and flustered. Gansey and Ronan perked up, craning their heads to see the fuss. 

“Someone’s fighting.” Gansey said, voice more curious than alarmed.

Fights did not happen on Aglionby ground, so much so that Adam had forgotten what one even looked like, even with someone like Ronan on campus. This was supposed to be Adam’s school, his safe haven; his normal. Fights were not normal here.

“Shit.” Ronan cursed, suddenly rushing forward.

“What is it?” Gansey called.

Ronan replied over his shoulder. “The asshole’s in the fight.” 

Adam and Gansey shared a glance at one another before breaking off in a jog to catch up with Ronan. It seemed to Adam, though his view was limited, that Ronan had simply stepped between the two people fighting and stopped them by the sheer force of his will power alone. It wouldn’t have been the first time Ronan intimidated a group of people into doing what he wanted.

Ronan did have one thing right though, the Raven Boy had been in a fight, and from what Adam could see as he got closer, Raven Boy lost.

When Adam got within eyeshot, he could see a trail of blood down Parker’s chin, a bright red against his pale cheeks. A dark, blue bruise was forming around his left eye too, and his hands were clenched into tight fists. The other kid- one Adam recognized as Justin Pitcher from his chemistry class- looked fine, with a sneer and a glare pointed at Ronan. A teacher was telling the both of them off, telling them fighting on school ground was intolerable, said something about consequences. Adam couldn’t hear him over the look on Ronan’s face.

Ronan, ever the predator, towered over Justin like a wolf might tower over a fawn. His eyes blazed with the intention to fight, to punch, to rip Justin’s heart out through his mouth. Adam thought this look had been reserved only for Ronan’s brother, Declan, but Ronan was wearing it now. The teacher tried placing a hand on Ronan’s shoulder to hold him back, but it didn’t matter. Ronan snarled and grabbed Justin by his collar, pulling him up to eye level.

“Ronan.” Gansey said, more a warning than a name. He reached out and grabbed Ronan’s other shoulder, and Ronan backed down, not before spitting an insult in Justin’s face.

Adam swore he could see Pitcher’s soul trying to escape from his body from the fear, even as the boy smirked.

Ronan strode up to Parker, ignoring the teacher’s threats of expulsion, while Gansey began apologizing profusely for Ronan’s behavior. Adam was caught between them, confused by the situation, his one good ear straining to hear Gansey, the teacher, and Ronan speak all at once like he used to be able to.

“Mr. Leonard, I promise you, Ronan didn’t mean anything by it, he was simply-“

“Hey, kid.” Ronan’s voice was soft, softer than Adam had heard it in a long while.

“Well I understand that Richard, but that’s no excuse to-“

“Are you okay? You look like shit.”

“Of course sir, you’re absolutely right, but as you can see-“

“What did that fucker want with you anyway?” Is that concern Adam hears? He quirked an eyebrow.

“You have a point there, Gansey I must admit, but-“

“Hey, focus!”

Adam turned, seeing Ronan snap his fingers in front of Parker’s face. The boy’s eyes were hazy, one of them half-shut from a black eye. He was looking at nothing, out of focus, and Ronan forced himself into his field of view.

“Parker!” Ronan snapped, grabbing the boy by his shoulders.

Adam saw the boy’s eyes jump to Ronan’s, then to his. Adam felt a whisper in his deaf ear.

‘Corvus. Corvus. Corvus.’

Raven. Raven. Raven. Adam started. What did that mean?

Parker looked away, breaking the spell between them. He pushed Ronan off, not with much effort, but Ronan backed off all the same. 

“Mr. Jones!” The teacher called, crooking a finger, ever a symbol of professionalism. “Mr. Lynch! Mr. Pitcher! A word, if you please.”

Gansey’s swallow was audible, his stare worried and wild when he looked at Adam.

All Adam could do was shrug, still confused by the series of events that had played out before him, watching the three Aglionby students march after their teacher. Ronan and Justin looked pissed, Parker looked disconnected, outside of himself, another look Adam had often worn himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love some constructive critiques if you guys have any!


	6. Chapter 6

Ronan

Ronan sat with Parker just outside the principal’s office. His leg bounced feverishly, just to give his body something to focus on that wasn’t him imagining Pitcher’s head through a wall. 

“You look dead.” Ronan commented, glancing over at Parker. The boy was cradling his eye with an icepack, the blood on his chin now dry in a dark, crusted line. He did look dead, his one good eye still unfocused, a dark circle from a restless night beneath it. His free hand fidgeted at Ronan’s words.

“I’m fine.” He said, but Ronan, and possibly everything in the waiting room, could tell it was a lie, and not a good one. There was a poster in Ronan’s English class that read: ‘In every ‘I’m fine’ is a scream for help. Be the one who hears it.’ Ronan found the poster stupid at best, but he could hear the screaming in Parker’s haven’t-talked-all-day voice.

“You’re shitty.” Ronan corrected.

“No,” Parker said, deadly calm, still not looking at Ronan. “I’m fine. You didn’t have to help me.”

“Really?” Ronan snorted. “He fucked you up, and he would’ve done worse if I hadn’t-“

“Shut up, please.”

Ronan snarled. “No, you shut up. I just covered your ass and I barely know you. I’m a goddamn hero, and you owe me an explanation.”

“Well there you go,” Parker said, eyes so suddenly on Ronan, and beyond angry. “You barely know me. I don’t owe you anything.”

“Next time I’ll let him beat your bitch ass then.”

“You do that.”

“Fuck you.”

Parker breathed, and Ronan watched his chest rise and fall, watched his eyes darken. “Okay,” Parker said, still looking Ronan in the eye. His voice was laced with something heavy. “Name a time and place.”

Ronan smirked, showing teeth. After a few long moments, Parker smirked too, and they both looked away. It was a dangerous thing, Ronan thought, what he was doing here. He had to remember that there were more important things to be doing than sitting in a principal’s office, smirking at the most non-Raven Boy Raven Boy in existence.

“You want to know what those cards meant?” Ronan asked.

“I already know what those cards meant.” Parker replied, leaning back, pulling the ice pack away. He touched his bruising eye and winced.

“No you don’t.” Ronan said.

Parker sighed, short but deeply. “I know that it’s trouble. Clearly I get enough of that on my own. I did just get my ass kicked, remember?”

“I do, and it was fucking hilarious, but you could be in a lot more exciting trouble.” Ronan said, as though it were enticing. 

“You’re not making a very good case.” Parker said, eyes squinting at Ronan. It was possible he was squinting because he was in pain, but Ronan decided instead that it was a good sign.

“Listen,” Ronan whispered, leaning toward Parker. “We have a magic forest, a dead king, a ghost friend, and a hell of a lot of weird ass women at our disposal. You have what? A sweater with a bird on it and a black eye?”

Parker blinked.

“You’re part of whatever we are now, whether you’re going to be a bitch about it or not.” Ronan said, leaning away again. He crossed his arms and spread himself out, while Parker considered him.

Ronan had to do this, more so because they- Gansey, Adam, and Blue- needed him to, but he also had to admit that it was nice to be the appealing one for once. Adam joined for Gansey, Blue joined for Adam, Noah joined because he was Noah, and it was about time someone joined for Ronan, or at least Ronan by proxy.

“To bitch or not to bitch.” Parker said, and Ronan knew he could feel it- that strange surge of adrenaline when you knew you were a part of something other than yourself. Sort of the same feeling as doing a drag race, but with less gasoline smell.

“Tuesday.” Ronan said. “Two O’clock. Library.”

“Are we meeting to see your quote-unquote ‘magic forest’, or are you finally naming a time and place to fuck me?” Parker asked.

It took every fiber of concentration in Ronan’s body not to let ‘both’ slip out of his mouth. ‘Both’ was dangerous. ‘Both’ would be hell for everyone involved. He forced his mouth into a line, not a smirk. He forced his eyes to Parker’s eyes, not the appealing line of his collarbone. He forced his mouth to say, “Bring a flashlight.”

The door to the teacher’s office opened, and there a smug looking Pitcher appeared.

“Mr. Lynch,” The teacher said. “I believe we can cut this short if you apologize to Mr. Pitcher. Mr. Pitcher, Mr. Jones, you apologize to one another. You’ll each have three periods of detention to make up for by the end of the week. Go on then.”

“I’m sorry.” Pitcher said. His eyes were daring, looking over Parker’s face as the Raven Boy looked on bleakly.

“But I wasn’t the one who-” Parker started, then stopped. He glanced at Ronan, as if to say ‘I’m incapable of being scary, you are very scary, help me’ and Ronan set his glare back on Pitcher as Parker said, “Apology accepted, I’m sorry as well.”

“Apology accepted.” Pitcher smirked, that sort of bastard smirk only rich kids can pull off. His eyes danced to Ronan’s, faltering at the sheer force of Ronan’s stare. Ronan was immensely thankful for being just good looking enough to appear evil in all the right ways.

“I apologize.” Ronan said, offering up a hand, putting on that big-money smile he was so used to seeing on Gansey.

Pitcher swallowed, took a shaking step forward, and forced his hand into Ronan’s. Ronan’s grip was firm, not anywhere near enough to hurt, but firm. This he learned from Mr. Gray.

“Well, good on you three.” The teacher said, walking past them to open the door. “I’m sure we can put this little incident behind us. Off you go gentlemen.” While his back was turned, Ronan bared teeth at Pitcher and narrowed his eyes, hoping the message was clear. Warning: The Dog Bites.

When they exited, Parker took one last look at Ronan, and, Ronan thought, this would probably be the death of him.


	7. Chapter 7

“Move over,” Blue said to Adam, sliding over to the middle seat in the back of the Camaro. He complied, allowing room for her and for Raven Boy. He looked different now, with a fading bruise around his left eye and cheekbone and a split in his lip. It wasn’t just his physical though, Blue could tell he had something heavy on his shoulders now.

That’s what his card said didn’t it? The darkest hour. Blue had stayed up after his card reading, wondering if it was his darkest hour of if he was the darkest hour or if he would bring the darkest hour. Was there much of a difference between those three things anymore?

Blue caught Gansey’s gaze in the rearview mirror and looked away, trying to stop her mind from racing. Instead she smiled at Parker and said. “We meet again.”

“Indeed.” Parker said, putting his backpack on his lap. 

It was a strange thing, Blue thought, to be so non-Aglionby even while wearing the blue vest. Gansey was very Aglionby sometimes, Adam worked hard to be Aglionby, and even Ronan had moments where he was just another Raven in just another car doing just another street race, but Parker wasn’t Aglionby at all. Blue thought he looked like he belonged in a school like her own, something loud and messy, where something quiet and clean like him could disappear into the background noise.

“Where’s your other friend?” Parker asked Gansey, hugging his backpack close to his chest. 

“Oh, you mean Noah. He’s at Monmouth probably.” Gansey replied, which wasn’t untrue exactly. Blue had no idea where Noah went when he wasn’t being oddly cute or unintentionally creepy. For all they knew, he was at Monmouth right now, reenacting his death or playing the Murder Squash song at full volume.

“I don’t mean to be blunt,” Parker said. “But is Noah the ghost one?”

“Noah is the ghost one.” Adam replied.

“It’s only creepy if you think about it too hard.” Blue said, patting Raven Boy’s leg kindly. He made a complicated expression.

He pouted rather cutely and said to her, “I’m thinking about it too hard.” 

Blue patted his leg again. “I heard you got in a fight.”

“The whole world heard he got in a fight.” Ronan clarified. “But no one gives two shits why, and this asshole won’t tell me.”

“Maybe it’s because you keep calling him an asshole.” Blue suggested

“Or maybe it’s because I just don’t want to talk about it.” Parker said, leaning against the window to peer out at the passing street signs.

Ronan turned around in the front seat to look at Raven Boy, and Raven Boy looked back, just as intense. Blue watched the exchange drag on and on, just waiting for someone to blink, and Adam finally reached out to flick Ronan’s ear. 

“Mary fuck Christ.” Ronan snapped at his offender, holding his ear.

“Sorry, I thought you were possessed.” Adam said, shrugging with a grin on his face. Blue snorted.

“I am not possessed, I’m simply confused as to why this kid won’t share.” Ronan mumbled. “I told him about the freaky forest, I think I deserve to know why he got in a fight with Pitcher.”

“I think you need me, with or without knowing why I got in a fight.” Parker said. 

“He has a point Ronan.” Gansey acknowledged, and Ronan turned back in his seat, throwing his feet onto the dashboard in protest. They turned into a dirt road they discovered a short time back, one that would lead them into Cabeswater without having to go down a main road. Gansey continued, “I have to warn you, Cabeswater isn’t just your regular everyday forest with vaguely magical tendencies.”

“Oh,” Parker sighed. “Well, at least I won’t be bored.”

“It draws power from the ley lines.” Adam said. “It sort of does what it does to suit who’s in it. So as long as you don’t think about anything terrifying, we should be okay.”

“So…” Raven Boy breathed again in that practiced way. “You started looking for ley lines to find your Welsh king, and then just happened upon a magic forest?”

“Yes.” Gansey nodded. “Only it’s deeper than that. We all belong to it in a way, and if we’re right, so do you.”

“You belong to it?” Parker asked.

“It’s a long story.” Ronan said, smiling devilishly. “You’ll figure it out as we go along.”

Adam shifted beside Blue. “Something’s different.”

“Something’s different bad or something’s different good?” Blue asked, turning to look at him. Adam shrugged and rolled down his window with the crank. He closed his eyes, listening.

Adam had been doing this a lot recently. Sometimes he would stop being Adam for a few moments and become something other, something bigger. It was times like these where Blue could believe the cards. The serene look on Adam’s face, even as he was obviously concentrating on something bigger than he was, screamed Magician almost violently.

Blue looked away after a while, she didn’t want to be the one to notice his breathing stop like she had when he went scrying with her and Noah.

When he shifted, and Blue caught his eyes again, he looked a lot like Gansey when he was reading. His face looked like the definition of ‘scholar’ and his eyes were soft. “I think it’s both.” He said.

“Both?” Raven Boy asked.

“Good and bad.” Adam replied.


	8. Chapter 8

Adam

Sometimes, being Adam was difficult. Most of those times were when Adam found himself in Cabeswater, or Cabeswater found itself inside Adam. Their relationship bordered on complicated. They communicated to one another, but neither of them seemed to understand each other’s feelings.

Adam felt like walking beside his friends when they got out of the Camaro, but he kept getting pulled down the path of the ley line instead. His friends- and Raven Boy- would make a left and his body would turn right. He had to force himself into alignment and then carry onward, trying not to notice that Gansey was looking at him in a concerned way.

It wasn’t Adam’s fault that Cabeswater had been louder lately.

They walked past the field that Ronan had left his mother and a variety of other dream things that Niall Lynch had left behind. After seeing so many of Ronan’s creations, Adam realized that Ronan’s father seemed to be more interested in the creativity rather than the practicality of his dreams. There were dishrags that were bright and shiny, almost too much so to look at, and dream catchers with feathers of all colors tied to the ends. All of this in comparison to Ronan’s language box or the EpiPens left much to be desired.

They pushed on further, not sure if showing the Raven Boy Ronan’s mom was a good idea yet, and stopped near the tree that Adam still had spine-tingling memories of. 

“My watch stopped.” Raven Boy said suddenly. “6:21. I’m not clear on magic forest rules. Is that normal, or do I need a new watch?”

Something was pushing at Adam. It was tugging and yanking, but from the inside, like Cabeswater was trying to pull him into himself, swallow him up from within. Adam checked his watch. 6:21. 

‘Corvus. Corvus. Corvus’

Only it wasn’t just in Adam’s deaf ear anymore, it was everywhere, in the trees, coming from the ground, the hiss in the stream of water they had been following, everything all at once, whispering. It set something in Adam’s blood simmering and screaming.

‘Corvus Princeps’

“Raven Prince.” Ronan translated flatly.

“What the hell?” Parker asked, glancing around at everything, as if trying to find a source. “Where is that coming from?”

“That’s what it said,” Adam muttered. “Before we came here, I heard it say ’Bring me the Raven Prince. Now. Now. Now.’”

“What the hell?” Parker repeated.

“Cabeswater?” Gansey asked.

Ronan made a complicated expression and looked up at the intertwining branches of the trees. It cast shadows across his face. “Qui?”

‘Tuus Corvus Puer’

Adam looked at Gansey, and Gansey looked at Ronan, and Ronan, thankfully, didn’t look at anyone. 

“Raven something?” Blue prodded.

“Raven Boy.” Gansey said, still looking at Ronan.

“Your Raven Boy.” Adam added, now also looking at Ronan.

Ronan snickered and asked, “Mea?”

‘Tua Greywaren’

“Yours, Greywaren.” Adam translated, and Ronan glowered, eyes flicking over to Adam. Sometimes, Adam thought, it must be difficult to be Ronan.

Blue gave a surprised gasp somewhere behind him, and he turned. He didn’t think Blue would be so disturbed by Cabeswater; it often talked in riddles, and he was about to say so too for Ronan’s sake, but that wasn’t what Blue had gasped at.

Adam thought feathers, and so they were feathers. They might’ve been something else before, maybe leaves or paper, but now they were feathers, big, black. Raven feathers. They blew past his face, caught in a nonexistent wind, tickling his cheeks and his caressing his exposed arms. Hundreds, thousands, they flew past Adam and toward Parker, rustling the way a bird’s wings might.

Parker made a series of surprised noises, and stepped back, only the feathers were suddenly upon him. At first they clung to his legs and his arms, one feather in particular kissed his lips and stayed there. Soon they began to swarm around him, and he was gone from Adam’s view.

Adam started, about to reach for Parker, suddenly afraid he might suffocate under the downy, but almost immediately as Adam began to move, the feathers were gone. One second here, the next, not here. One second Parker was a Raven Boy, the next, a Raven Prince.

Still in the Aglionby vest, at first glance, Adam thought Parker was fine, that maybe that was Cabeswater’s way of greeting him. Only his face wasn’t bruised anymore, no cut on his lip, no darkness in his eyes. Everything about him so startlingly alive where it was once so dead.

There were marks on his cheeks, made from something black, oil, charcoal; it was impossible to say. One line down from the middle of his bottom lip to his chin, two dots beneath both of his eyes and another long line peeking from under his shirt along the curve of his collar bone. Five raven feathers stuck out from behind his ear, up toward the sky, tied around his head with a black ribbon, a Crown. 

Raven Prince.

Parker looked up toward Ronan. Ronan looked down at Parker with his chin in his hand. Parker smiles, all nerves, and says, “Is it too late to bitch about all of this?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't be afraid to give me critiques. And oh jeeze, if there's a spelling error, please let me know.


	9. Chapter 9

Gansey

Gansey watched on as Parker stood in the bathroom, using a wet towel to clean the black markings off his face. Gansey worried his bottom lip, trying to understand Cabeswater, trying to think of it in a different way. True, Blue, Ronan, Noah, Adam, and himself all belonged to Cabeswater, it wasn’t unthinkable for there to be someone else who belonged to it too, but it didn’t feel right. 

There had been a moment when Gansey first invited Blue into his world, a moment of realization that this was how it was meant to be. He didn’t feel that with Parker, no spark, no connection, nothing. If anything, he felt even further from Parker than he started. Their worlds were oceans apart, and then suddenly, they were worlds apart.

Ronan sat against the wall beneath the map of Henrietta, looking dark and broody, while Adam leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen, looking other and alone. Gansey glanced between the two of them, wondering what this meant for them. He didn’t want to fight, not with anyone, but he wanted to ask, ask about what this meant for him, for Blue, for the Raven Boy in his bathroom. What did it mean?

“It said he was yours.” Adam spoke suddenly. “’Yours Greywaren. Your Raven Prince.’”

“You think I don’t know that?” Ronan snapped.

“But why?” Adam continued, this time looking at Gansey. “Why would it say that? What does that mean?”

Gansey shrugged, and Ronan bristled like a cat, puffing out his chest and squaring his shoulders. This was bad. Gansey didn’t want to fight.

“You didn’t think about it happening, did you?” Adam asked.

Ronan pulled a face. “How the fuck would one think about something like that? What kind of shit do you think I’m on?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Adam breathed, looking down. “I don’t know, but it feels different doesn’t it? Cabeswater doesn’t normally do… that.”

“It’s a magic-ass forest.” Ronan said. “It does whatever it wants.”

“Ronan’s right.” Gansey sighed. “We still don’t know the full extent of the its power, and from what we can tell, it’s not like it has rules.”

“But Cabeswater has never been this direct before. It speaks in tarot cards and scrying and makes time flow weird.” Adam touched a hand to his face and down at Ronan. “It didn’t say something incomprehensible, it said what it meant. ‘Bring me the Raven Boy now, now, now.’ And we did. ‘The Raven Boy is a Raven Prince.’ And he is. ‘Yours Greywaren. Your Raven Prince.’ So he must be yours.”

Ronan glared, but not at Adam. His eyes were past Adam, past Monmouth. He said, “I don’t own shit.”

“Sure, but Cabeswater doesn’t think so. You’re its Greywaren. He’s your Raven Prince.” Adam dropped his hand when Ronan didn’t reply. “I think he might be related to Glendower.”

“Raven King. Raven Prince.” Gansey replied. “But I don’t think Glendower had any descendents aside from his daughters, and they all died.”

“Gwenillian didn’t.” Adam said. “Maybe another one survived too and continued the family line or something.”

Ronan said something offensive involving Adam’s mom, and Adam said something offensive about Ronan’s, and Gansey tried to stay quiet. Somewhere in the back of his mind he admitted to himself that this would be easier with Blue. She was sensible in a nonsensical sort of way, and she would take one look at the three of them and know a solution, or at least a way to find a solution. He would have to call her later.

A fire started in his stomach at the thought.

Suddenly a soft voice cut through one of Ronan’s long string of swears. “You do know I can hear you, right?”

Gansey watched Raven Boy pluck the feathers out of his hair and stuff them haphazardly into his back pocket. There was still a small smear of black on his collarbone, but the rest of it was gone. He said, “I don’t think I have any Welsh in my family history, but I can ask my dad when I get home. Speaking of which, I don’t have a ride, and I really don’t want to take the bus at night.” 

“Come on you little shit.” Ronan said, walking toward the front door. “I’ll take you home.”

Parker scratched the back of his head as he nodded, walking after Ronan. Adam had a curious look on his face as he watched them leave, but he didn’t say anything.

Once they were gone, Adam looked at Gansey and Gansey looked at Adam. 

“’Yours Greywaren.’” Adam repeated for about the hundredth time, his voice somehow different than it was before. “’Your Raven Prince.’”

Gansey sighed and looked toward the door Ronan and Parker had left. “What does this mean for us, Adam? What does this mean for Glendower?”

Adam looked away. “I don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been weeks, guys, I'm so sorry. And this chapter is rather dinky, but I'm trying to do better I promise. There's been a lot of writer's block, and it's still kind of here, but I think I'll be able to push through. Thanks to anyone who's stuck with me.


	10. Chapter 10

Ronan

Ronan had Parker in his car. It was thrilling and terrible, and made him want to scream or smile or some combination of the two. He felt loose and young even though his bones ached from walking around Cabeswater earlier, but it was getting increasingly harder to concentrate. 

Eyes on the road, Ronan, not Parker’s collarbone. Eyes on the road, Ronan, not Parker’s eyes, eyes that look like the reflection of shifting trees in a lake, eyes that are looking at you. Eyes on the road, Ronan, eyes on the road.

“So,” Parker said. “You didn’t mention the trees talk.”

Ronan squeezed the steering wheel. “Well, the trees talk.”

Parker made a pleased little humming noise, his hand holding onto the handle above the door. After a few more seconds he spoke again. “You do realize you’re going faster, right?”

Oh, Ronan realized all right. His foot pressed down harder on the gas pedal, harder and harder, the speedometer climbing and climbing, until the pedal hit the floor. Ronan was electric, focused only on the road, only on the highway stretched out ahead of them, on that dark sent of gasoline and burning rubber. 

Parker had given Ronan his address earlier. He lived near the same side of Henrietta as Adam. There were smaller houses past the church, somewhere inbetween mansions and trailers, and while Ronan could’ve driven there through the regular streets, this, the highway, was better. It would make it so they sat in the car longer, and Ronan could speed while his heart pounded in his ears.

“Ronan?” Parker asked. 

Ronan was electric, and his eyes weren’t on the road anymore, they were on Parker’s eyes, the smudge of black on his collarbone, and his mouth, his mouth, his mouth. Ronan flicked his eyes back onto the road a second later. This was too much, too dangerous, too soon.

“I know.” Ronan said. “Fuck off.”

Ronan awaited a response, but Parker didn’t reply. When Ronan looked over, Parker had his eyes closed, head leaned back. His breathing was slow, almost like he had fallen asleep. Ronan let his eyes linger on the slope of Parker’s nose, the one unruly hair that curled against his eyebrow, and his mouth, his mouth, his mouth, his-

Eyes on the road, Ronan.

He checked the time. 6:21. He let the car slow and checked it again. 6:22.

Parker shifted and opened his eyes, glancing at the side of Ronan’s face as they left the highway and began navigating through the suburb. A moment passed, then another, and finally Parker talked again.

“Are you in love with Adam?”

The car screeched and spun out of control. Ronan’s foot had hit the break so hard that the floor beneath it must’ve dented. The car skidded for about five seconds, and Ronan’s heart seemed to stop then pound then stop again all within that time. He swallowed a lump in his throat and glared hard at Raven Boy, anger welling up inside him like a horrible disease. 

“Jesus Christ! Why did you do that?” Parker startled. 

Ronan said. “How did you… How the fuck did you?”

“I don’t know.” Parker said, as calm as he could be. “I just saw the way you looked at him in the forest and in the car, and I don’t know… Are you?”

“Fuck you.” 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to piss you off, I was just asking.”

“Get out.”

“What?”

“Get the fuck out of my car.” Ronan snapped, all bite.

Parker paled and looked out at the streetlights and houses around them. He breathed with concentration, eyes finding the street sign. “Okay. Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll get out. My house is just a few blocks away anyway, and… I-I’ll go.”

He opened the passenger door and climbed out of the BMW, almost immediately shivering in the cold. “Ronan, I’m really sorry, seriously, I don’t know why I-“

Ronan threw an abandoned jacket at Parker from the backseat, reached for the passenger door and slammed it. He sped down the road, looking at Parker’s stunned face in the rearview mirror.

Eyes on the road, Ronan.


	11. Chapter 11

Gansey

Gansey heard the gentle patter of rain on the roof first, then far-off thunder, then the even louder patter of rain on the roof, then a boom of thunder so loud that it made the windows rattle and his bed shake. Then he finally heard the buckets of rain and hail that signified that a storm had rolled into Henrietta and would be staying for a time. He buckled down, winding his blanket around himself in a cocoon and propping a book up on his covered feet, sipping a hot chocolate he made in the microwave.

Then Ronan come home, even louder than the storm and much, much angrier. He threw his keys down and kicked his shoes off into the walls. Then he stormed into Gansey’s room, absolutely deadly, and slammed the door closed behind him. Water dripped off his ears and his jacket, drenching the open books and scattered papers on Gansey’s floor.

Gansey said, surprised, “Hey,”

Ronan said, honest and rude, “I fucking hate this shit.”

“What happened?” Gansey asked.

“I. Fucking. Hate. This. Shit.” 

Gansey blinked at Ronan, trying to guess at what could’ve possibly happened in the thirty minutes that Ronan was gone. 

Ronan turned and slammed his fist into the wall, causing the vibrations to shake the frame of Gansey’s bed just like the thunder had, and said, “I don’t want to be the Greywaren anymore.” He hit the wall again for good measure, making a mark in the paint. “It’s such bullshit.”

“Ronan, don’t.” Gansey warned, setting down his cup of hot chocolate. He leaned forward in his cocoon as if moving closer would defuse whatever this was.

“I freaking said it.” Ronan growled, putting his fist down. “I don’t want to be a part of this anymore.”

“Ronan.” Gansey repeated.

“He’s not my Raven Prince or whatever the shit. He’s just a little prissy, white, rich kid like everyone else. Like you. Just a know-it-all little asshole with his face and his collarbone and his mouth, and you know what, I’m done. Fuck him, fuck this, fuck everything.”

Ronan stomped his feet as he stormed out, putting every ounce of himself into the action as possible, pulling the door open so hard the hinges creaked and then slamming it back closed again.

Gansey breathed, it was all he could do, and pulled out his phone. He dialed and it rang, once, twice, then it beeped and a little breathy “Gansey” had his heart doing backflips.

“Blue,” He replied, already out of breath. “We need to find Glendower.”

“Right.” Blue said.

“Ronan’s angry. I don’t know why, but we need to find him, soon. Otherwise Ronan might be angry forever.”

“He’s always angry.” Blue sighed.

Gansey shook his head even though she couldn’t see him. “It’s different.”

“Everything is.” She breathed against the receiver and Gansey closed his eyes. A moment passed between them, sweet and comfortable. She breathed against the receiver again and Gansey could feel it down his spine. “And Cabeswater said it was his Raven Prince. I’d be a little weirded out too. Besides, I think we all have a reason to be a little angry right now.”

“Have you talked to your father yet?” Gansey asked.

“You mean the guy living in our pantry?” Blue scoffed. “No. And he’s not my father, just…”

“A guy living in your pantry.”

“Yeah. Just a guy.”

Gansey frowned at the static of her voice. “I think the storm is trying to kill our connection.”

Her voice crackled even more. “Tha- rude- it.”

“I think I should hang up and try again later.”

“-kay. Night, Gansey Three.”

“Goodnight, Sargent.” 

He hung up just as Ronan entered. The look on his face held bitterness. 

He walked over to Gansey’s nightstand, and set something down. Then Ronan left, and Gansey watched him leave. Gansey had to force his eyes to the object now on his desk, his heart pounded and his body felt cold. It was an EpiPen, not a threat, but a promise. Ronan was done, or at least, he might be soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So wow, I'm bad at having a schedule, but I do try. Sorry it's been almost a month everyone. I don't know if anyone is still sticking with me, but a big thank you if you are. I'm posting another chapter tomorrow, but the next four after that might have to wait until the weekend after the next. I think that's the 20th of August. I'm also going to start working on another fic, from Dragon Age if any of you might be interested. That'll be going up next week hopefully, and then I might actually have a solid schedule. Thanks for all of your support and comments everyone! Have a good week!


	12. Chapter 12

Adam

Adam’s skin prickled at the sound of thunder. He remembered a story about how if you count the time between a lightning strike and the sound of thunder you could tell how far away a storm was. So he counted. There was a flash of light from outside. One, two, three, and then thunder crackled. Three miles away.

There were a lot of things three miles away from Adam, Aglionby, his father’s trailer, a Walmart.

He saw another flash of light. One, two, and then thunder boomed. Two miles.

Two miles away there was one of Adam’s jobs, one where he moved big boxes off of a truck and into the store. There was also a hair saloon where he used to get his haircuts before it got too expensive and he started cutting his own hair.

Flash. He counted only to one, and there was a bang, just loud enough to make him jump. One mile.

One mile from here there was Nino’s and a pile of rocks he had rearranged for Cabeswater. There were small houses and a tiny lake beside an elementry school. Sometimes he could hear the school bell ring when it was quite enough.

Another flash, and the thunder came immediately. Adam had expected it; he barely flinched when the windows rattled and someone in the street swore loudly at the heavens. There was banging at the door, Adam chalked it up to the result of it bouncing against the rusted hinges when the walls shook.

He closed his eyes, imagining he was now in the eye of the storm, or at least he would be for a few more seconds at least. This wasn’t the first time he was caught in a storm, no the first time he felt like one either. Adam took a deep breath and ran fingers through is hair. Then his door knocked again, three times.

Wearily he stood from his bed and walked to the door. He opened it carefully, peering out into the dark and the rain. A very wet, very awake looking Raven Boy stood on his doormat, shaking the water off his old sneakers. He looked up at Adam, intention written on his face, jaw set and eyes wide.

“Hey,” He said, pulling the hood of his jacket down. “Don’t freak out.”

Adam didn’t. Instead he asked, “How did you know where I lived?”

“Ronan told me when I gave him directions to my house, said you were close by. He sort of… kicked me out of the car, it’s a long story. I should’ve headed home, but instead I wanted to talk to you about, you know, stuff or whatever.”

“Okay.” Adam said, trying not to let the surprise sneak into his tone. He let Parker inside, realizing suddenly that he was wearing one of Ronan’s old jackets, the dark one with scuff marks on the elbows. He was about to ask why Parker had one of Ronan’s jackets when Raven Boy started talking, shivering in the middle of Adam’s bedroom/livingroom/kitchen.

“You can feel it, right? Cabeswater.”

“Not exactly.” Adam replied, stoic. “It doesn’t work that way.”

“But it talks to you, sort of.” Parker said. “Like when we were in the car, you stuck your head out and said something was different.”

Adam tilted his head and put a hand to his face, rubbing his eye. It felt as though some of the rainwater had gotten between his eyelids and it stung just enough to be annoying.

“Well, I was thinking, what if- what if I’m the thing that’s different? I mean… You know with the Raven Prince stuff and Ronan.” He ran his fingers across the back of his neck. “Jesus, I’m sorry, I should’ve waited until school. God I’m awful. I should ju-whatareyoudoing?”

Adam’s left hand had suddenly closed around Raven Boy’s wrist. He could feel Parker’s pulse hard and fast under his fingertips, the wet of the rain and cold seeping from Parker’s skin into his. Only he didn’t remember reaching for him. Couldn’t recall why he had or when he had.

“Adam?” Parker asked, voice suddenly a strange pitch.

He looked up and very slowly pulled his hand back, trying to tell himself that there was a good reason it felt difficult to do so. His body instinctively reached out because he had started to trip, only he wasn’t moving, and he would know for sure if that’s what happened, wouldn’t he?

“Sorry, I don’t know why I did that.” Adam replied. “What were you saying?”

“I was saying that I’ll talk to you about this tomorrow, and… okay seriously what are you doing?”

Adam’s left hand was grasping Parker’s shoulder, hard, the blunt of his chewed nails biting into Ronan’s old jacket. Adam stared at his own hand, then Parker’s confused face, then his hand again. Again he carefully pulled his hand away, slowly, only because it didn’t seem to want to obey him. 

“I didn’t mean to do that.” 

“Adam…” Parker repeated, his hazel eyes gone wide. “Your face.”


	13. Chapter 13

Parker

Half of Adam’s face had become a shadow, dark, inky black. The color spread up from his neck, across his jaw, then his face. It appeared to be spiderwebbing through his veins like a disease across some parts of his forehead, his nose, and even a tiny vein in his top lip.

Adam brought his left hand to his eye, then pulled it quickly away from himself, startled. His hand was black too, charred, like he had dipped it into a bucket of black paint and smeared it across the side of his face. 

Adam studied it, only it looked like one of his eyes wasn’t focused where it should’ve been. The eye on the same side as the black, with the iris suddenly glowing bright, unnatural green, the pupil almost wide enough to swallow the color, stared directly at Parker, like a laser targeting him.

Parker panicked.

Fear bubbled up through him, his hands ran cold; suddenly his vision was tunneling in, focusing only on Adam, on his face that seems to be cut in half. That green eye cut straight through him, into his heart, and he could feel the organ pounding in his ribcage like it wanted to break free. His lungs began to beg him for oxygen, more, more. He realized, deliriously, that he was hyperventilating.

He watched as Adam’s hand, the black one, reached for him with sudden intensity. He watched as Adam gasped, the air sounding as though it had been strangled out of him, and grabbed for his own hand with his other, holding it back like a rabid dog. Then he watched Adam stumble back and collapse against the wall.

Parker knew he should call 911, or move in to help Adam, but he couldn’t. His body froze, eyes wide, just watching Adam struggle. Then suddenly the world shifted left; the ground disappeared from under him, and then black.

He dreamed, for merely seconds, about ravens.

Parker woke up on a bed, arms neatly folded over his chest, wet shoes off. He sat up in a wild frenzy, panic still quick in his chest. Parker thought, bleakly, how often he had been in this position in his life, passed out cold in a place that wasn’t his own. 

The rain pattered on the rough above, and a quiet boom of distant thunder pulled his attention back to the present. 

“Jesus,” Parker said, putting a hand to his aching head. “What time is it? How long was I out?”

“It’s only eight.” Adam replied, taking a deep breath. “You were out for just a few minutes. Do you pass out like that a lot?”

“Since moving here, yeah.” Parker said, rubbing his eyes, then shooting them open with the sudden realization of what had just happened. “Are you… are you okay, or?”

“I’m fine.” Adam answered, shifting to stand. “I went back to normal after you… Well not normal, none of this is normal.” 

“No.” Parker agreed.

“I think,” Adam said, sighing. “I think there’s something wrong with Cabeswater.”

“Really?” Parker asked, raising an eyebrow, finally rising out of Adam’s bed. “What gave that away? Your arm and face or you wanting to kill me?”

Adam frowned. “I don’t know if that was it.” 

“If what was what?” 

“If what just happened was Cabeswater. It felt like… something else.” Adam shook his head at himself and stuffed his hands into his pockets. His gaze fell to his feet, face turning from wild confusion to deep in thought.

“Should you call Gansey?” Parker asked.

Adam considered this. “I don’t know.”

“Should I call Gansey?”

“Definitely not.” Adam sighed again.

Parker watched Adam’s face fall and took a deep breath. He remembered, stupidly, a time when he was at his therapist’s office, having a panic attack a lot like the one he just had. He was telling his therapist that he had trouble figuring out what he was feeling, and then she asked him to describe how he felt in that moment. He told her he didn’t know, but she kept pressing for an answer. His chest seemed to constrict, like he couldn’t get enough air. His stomach clamped down. He thought in that moment that he was dying. 

“Do you think it was trying to kill me?” Parker asked.

“I don’t know… it felt…” Adam waved a hand around the room as if that explained it.

Parker understood.

“I offered myself to Cabeswater. It’s a long story,” Adam said. “But I told it that I would be its eyes and its hands. I’ve been… fixing it. What happened just now felt like the opposite of fixing it.”

“You should call Gansey.” Parker said. “This feels like something he would want to know about.”

Adam blinked at him.

“What?”

“Who are you?” Adam asked, eyebrows knitted together.

“I, uh, don’t know what you mean?”

“Why does Cabeswater want you? You’re not from here; you’re not a part of Henerietta… But you’re its Prince. I don’t get it.”

Parker shrugged.

“And you knew about Tarot cards and Welsh kings, and when you heard about our ghost and our magic forest you didn’t even… Who the hell are you?” Adam’s voice was raising. Something about it sounded jealous.

Parker’s face burned red. “I don’t know. I just… I’m just a guy. I don’t know what to tell you.”

Adam tilted his head at him.

***

“I ‘feel’ like no one gets me.” Parker explained, using the words she told him to, head resting in his hands.

“Do you feel alone?” His therapist, Rose, asked him.

“I ‘feel’… I ‘feel’ like I’m surrounded by a lot of people, and none of them know me or want to try knowing me, and I also ‘feel’ like I don’t care, but clearly I do, because it’s bothering me.” 

“I think we could say you feel lonely.” Rose told him, scribbling something down. He hated when she did that.

“I ‘feel’ like I don’t belong here.” Parker said to her. “I ‘feel’ like there’s somewhere I should be and this isn’t it.” 

“Do you mean you don’t feel like you belong at home, with your family?”

“No, that’s not it, it’s…”

“Do you feel alone at school?”

“I guess, but-”

“That’s normal, Parker, you’re new there, and Virginia schools are very different from California schools. It’ll take some time.”

“You do realize I’m gay right?” Parker snapped. “In Virginia? A lot of the people here still think gay means happy and queer means something odd. They see a boy kiss another boy and they think that there’s a demon inside him, not that he likes kissing boys.”

“I’m sure not everyone feels that way.” Rose assured him. “You’ll meet people who won’t care about that, I’m sure of it.”

“And it’s not just me being gay.” Parker continued, looking down, as if Rose hadn’t spoken at all. “I’m-I’m weird. I don’t know what to say or how to act around those kids.”

“Have you tried being yourself?” Rose asked him, a small smile pulling at her lips.

Parker sighed. “How do I just ‘be myself’ if I don’t even know who I am? I hardly even know what that means. It’s like- I feel like I’m a shape shifter or something just being whoever they want me to be.” 

Rose looked at him, pity written clear in her eyes.

Parker looked down at his watch. “I have to go. They’re making me tutor someone for school.”

***

“I don’t know who I am.” Parker said to Adam. “I don’t know what it wants with me. I’m sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as I'm sure you're all aware by now, I am the actual worst at keeping a schedule. So I have a new plan for myself. I'm only going to focus on posting one chapter at a time rather than putting them out in batches of two or four. That way they will hopefully be longer and just all-around better. Wish me luck. (I'm going to need it.)


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That feel when the clinical depression hits and you don't post a story for about four months.   
> If anyone is still reading this, I'm so so deeply sorry. I'm going to do my best, but as you can see, there really are no guarantees. I still care about the story, I promise, and I have a couple ideas written down here and there.  
> Anyway, please enjoy this slightly rushed and fillery chapter.

Ronan

Ronan slung his backpack over his shoulder, glaring at Gansey, because it had been his idea to go to school today. Ronan assumed he was being punished for what he had said during the storm. He also assumed this was the universe shitting on him for leaving Parker in the rain.

It wasn’t fair really. The rain puddles were soaking through his shoes, and the ground was glistening with the rain in such a way that reminded Ronan too much of Parker’s eyes. It really wasn’t fair.

‘Are you in love with Adam?’ 

Ronan glared at the ground.

He hadn’t meant what he said to Gansey, not really. He couldn’t be done with this shit, not until it was over, until it was done. The anger had stopped simmering in his veins, and it left him with guilt instead, raw shame. Ronan had been cruel.

He did cruel things all the time, sure, but not to Gansey, not when Gansey couldn’t tell he was just being an asshole to be an asshole. This time he had been an asshole on accident, which was undeniably worse.

“That’s weird.” Gansey said.

Ronan looked up and found Adam’s perfectly pristine raven sweater. He had his arms crossed over his chest, looking very serious and very Adam. Ronan’s eyes darted over to the person he was talking to, then narrowed sharply.

‘Are you in love with Adam?’

Parker looked a lot more anxious than anything else, as always, playing with his fingers as Adam spoke to him.

What the fuck was Parker telling him? Had he told Adam about the car thing? Had he told Adam what Ronan thought of him? Had he asked Adam if he cared about Ronan? What had Adam said to that? Is that why he looked so serious? And why was Parker so anxious about it?

Ronan’s eyes widened.

Was Parker still wearing his jacket?

“Ronan,” Gansey said, for about the third time since his original statement. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Ronan said, clutching one of his backpack straps so hard his knuckles had turned white. He swallowed, paused, then said, “I’m leaving.”

“What?” Gansey startled. “Why?”

“Reasons.” 

“Ronan,” Gansey said, in that warning way he always said Ronan’s name nowadays. “Did something happen between you and Parker? Or Adam?”

“No.” Ronan lied. “I just don’t want to be here. I’m going to see my mom.”

“Oh,” Gansey’s eyes stilled for a moment. Ronan knew he couldn’t say no to that. “Okay.”

Ronan turned on his heel and walked back through the quad, as if his mind wasn’t racing through the last few days, over the tutoring and the car ride and the storm that seemed to be just too perfectly timed.

Once he was in his car, he allowed himself a moment to punch the steering wheel as hard as he could. About half a dozen Aglionby boys startled and flipped birds in his direction. Ronan wanted to run them all over and drive his car straight into the building.

He went to Cabeswater instead.

It greeted him as an old friend, the trees whispering ‘Salve, Greywaren’; trees arching to make a gateway for him as he walked through the woods toward his mom. She sat amongst a pile of dream things, dusting them, toying with them, or something. To be honest Ronan didn’t really know what she did, but she always had a smile on her face, always looked happy.

Ronan strolled up to his mother, hands pushed into his pockets. She looked up and smiled, looking all at once angelic. She was a dream, after all, beautiful and kind and uncomplicated. 

“Hello, honey.” She said, reaching a hand out to Ronan. He took it, smiling back at her, squeezing her fingers as she squeezed his. They shared a quiet moment after that, Ronan finding a spot to sit at her feet, with her running her beautiful, long fingers over a dream item. It was impossible to say really, what the thing was. It glowed despite the light outside and seemed warm despite the cold of the previous night of rain. It was round and gorgeous, and Ronan longed to touch it. 

Ronan’s mother handed the dream object to him without a word, and he took it, thumbing the little sequin-type stuff on it. It glowed a soft blue, as if in greeting as he continued to pet it. Then his mother reached out, rubbing soothing circles over Ronan’s scalp.

“You used to have your hair longer.” His mother said, voice sweet and happy. “I miss your long hair.”

“It’s better short.” Ronan replied. “Easier.”

“That makes sense.” She agreed, touching his shoulder. “I wish I had been there when you shaved it and got this tattoo.”

“You were there.” Ronan said, before remembering, that yes, technically she had been, but she was… asleep then. She said nothing to that, just continued to trace the line of black ink peaking out from beneath the Raven uniform.

“Are you alright?” She asked him next, taking the dream thing. She splayed her fingers over it, and it glowed bright orange for her. 

He considered how to respond, not because he wanted to lie, the opposite actually. He wasn’t sure. He decided on “I don’t know.”

She frowned a little and set the thing down onto her lap.

“What’s his name?” She asked.

Ronan, to his credit, didn’t startle so much as violently blink. He hadn’t admitted it to anyone really, the gay thing, but here his mother was, seeing into his soul as always. She continued to touch his shoulder and waited for his heart to settle.

“Parker.” Ronan replied, sighing. “And Adam too. And Gansey.”

“That’s a lot of boys.” 

Ronan snorted. “Yeah.”

“Which one is the one you like?” She asked.

Ronan shrugged, because it was ‘complicated’. His mother accepted this, and nodded to herself.

“Well you should tell him then.” She argued, standing. The dream thing fell from her lap and rolled across the dirt and the grass, far longer than it should’ve, and stopped at the bottom of a larger oak tree. 

Ronan stared at it, realizing it was a soccer ball. He and Matthew used to kick the thing around when they were younger. Matthew was never very good at sports, so Ronan always won. It wasn’t a competition exactly, but it was fun for Ronan to win. 

He stood and wondered over to it, slipping a little on the gnarled roots of the oak tree as he approached. He dipped down and scooped it up into his arms, holding it like a mother dragon with her egg, like it was a treasure to be protected and cared form, like he would never let it go. 

“There were birds.” His mother said, suddenly behind him. 

“Birds.” Ronan repeated, looking back at her.

“Ravens.” 

“So?”

“They tried to take things.” She told him. Then she gestured to the soccer ball. “Like that, and the lilies, and the car.” 

Ronan tried to imagine Chainsaw lifting a car with her beak. The image was comical, so he grinned, but his mother was shaking her head disparagingly, frowning. A creased formed between her brows. She looked scared, oddly. That wasn’t a look he ever saw on his mother’s face.

“When?” He asked.

His mother shrugged, and Ronan remembered that time was a funny thing in Cabeswater. He watched her walk back over to the spot they were before. He noticed that there were a lot of feathers on the ground, now that she had mentioned it. They littered the ground like black dark rocks, and when he looked over at one of the Mitsubishis, left behind by Kavinsky, he did notice a few things missing from the open hood. The engine for one, the battery for two, and a wheel. The more he stared, he noticed that the hood was dented, like the birds had pecked it. It would take days for one of them to do something like that.

“How many birds did you say?”

“Six hundred.” His mother replied, directly behind his ear. “And twenty-one.”

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Send help. I'm in Raven Boy hell.


End file.
